The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I am a confirmed fan of Steve Jackson Games, by which I do not mean GURPS (the game mechanics seem lackluster to me, though the detailed sourcebooks are great for use with more interesting rules sets) but rather such (for want of a better term) "board games" as Car Wars, Hacker, Toon, and Illuminati. However, despite the fact that I've been buying SJG products for about twenty years, I for one reason or another never chanced to get a copy of Ogre. I did remember seeing a Grenadier Models Ogre Mark V when I was in junior high school (1983 or so) and being impressed by it. My primary gaming interest at this point in my life happens to be wargaming and miniatures. Thus, when I recently noticed that a new version of Ogre was being released featuring a formidable selection of items from the newly re-released Ogre miniatures line, I was quick to place an order. While enduring the interminable delays while the game was "at the printer," I purchased the new edition of Ogre/GEV (which uses old-fashioned cardboard counters) in order to learn the rules. So first let me say a little about...

THE GAME

The Ogre family of games is set in the late twenty-first century, in a rather grim, Orwellian world where a number of superpowers (all of which are essentially military dictatorships) are struggling for supremacy. A form of "synthetic diamond" armor has been developed, rendering armored vehicles and even battlesuited infantry immune to all attacks short of tactical nuclear weapons. Guess what these intrepid future warriors are tossing around like firecrackers. Added to this over-the-top scenario is what really gives this game its flavor, the giant cybernetic tank or Ogre. These babies are fifteen meters high, with armor that shrugs off the tac nukes and a deadly complement of atomic rail guns and "antipersonnel" (possibly flechette?) weapons. In its most basic form (there are innumerable elaborations), a game of Ogre involves an attack by a single Ogre cybertank on a vital enemy command post defended by a dozen or so vehicles and twenty squads of power-armored infantry. Since the armor protecting the Ogre's computer brain and power plant is essentially impervious to anything a local defense force can hope to muster, the only chance of stopping the giant tank is to blow the guns and treads (represented by abstract "tread points") off it before it reaches the command post. Not as easy as it sounds, I'm afraid, especially since the Ogre can basically swat the defenders like flies. Combat in Ogre is quick and deadly, using the kind of old-fashioned odds-ratio Combat Results Table that every veteran wargamer (such as myself) will greet with a nostalgic smile. Movement is simple and mostly unconcered with terrain (in the basic game). The game map, an ugly patch of blasted, cratered, and rubble-strewn ground where these intrepid future warriors have obviously been throwing some of the plentiful tac nukes, is a real kick. But the real stars of Deluxe Ogre are...

THE MINIATURES

These are simply great. I can't lavish enough praise on them. The game comes with an Ogre Mark III (one of the "little" ones) and some units for it to crush: an ominous-looking command post, eight tanks (4 with missiles and 4 with cannon), a hefty atomic howitzer, six GEVs (hovertanks), and twenty-one small infantry men in powered armor (each of which represents a whole squad in the game). Ten bases for the infantry are also provided. The miniatures are in 1/275 scale and thus slightly larger than the 1/300 or 6mm scale of many science fiction miniatures. The sculptors have taken advantage of this slight size increase to add a wealth of surface detail. The miniatures paint up beautifully with minimal skill and a small investment of time; it took me only two and a half weeks to paint them all while working and attending college. All the miniatures need is a base coat, some dry brushing, and a light wash to bring out the details. I prefer a rather heavy wash to make the vehicles took shadowy and dirty (there's an atomic war going on, after all!) but individual tastes will vary. In any case, these fine miniatures are well worth the price of Deluxe Ogre and compare favorably (both in terms of realism and value) to Battletech or Warhammer miniatures. Of course, once I had the neat little miniatures painted I had no choice but to proceed immediately to...

THE PLAYTEST

I recruited my brother, an old wargamer, for the festivities. He and I had both read the rules thoroughly, but neither of us had ever played Ogre before. We flipped a coin and he ended up as the defender. He chose the howitzer, four GEVs, and six tanks (half with missiles) to defend his command post along with twenty squads of infantry. He deployed the units with GEVs and missile tanks in the front and everything else at about the "fifty yard line" of the battlefield; the long-ranged howitzer was placed dead center, in a position to sweep the field from side to side. Naturally his command post was placed at the far end of the battlefield from my Ogre's entry point! I brought in the Ogre and began to harrass the defending forces, moving from side to side just out of howitzer range, forcing the defending units to constantly redeploy to block my expected lunge at the command post. The GEVs began making hit and run attacks on the Ogre (an attribute of their superior speed), chipping away at the treads and destroying one of the smaller guns. I continued to make sweeps across the battlefield, keeping the defending units off balance and picking off two of the lightly-armored missile tanks which strayed too close. Then I saw my opportunity: all of the manuevering had caused the defending GEVs to become clustered within easy reach. My Ogre lunged forward into howitzer range and unleashed a barrage which destroyed three of the GEVs. All of my brother's remaining armored units moved in to attack as I charged at the howitzer, followed on the next turn by swarms of infantry. It took the Ogre two turns to reach and crush the howitzer under its treads, and in that time it absorbed terrible punishment: its movement was down to two-thirds and all of its guns and most of its AP weapons had been destroyed. On the other hand, only a dozen or so infantry squads remained of the once-proud defense force, clustered around and blasting at the Ogre's treads. I headed straight for the defenseless command post, taking potshots at the harrassing infantry with my few remaining AP weapons. Within two turns, as the Ogre neared the command post, only half a dozen infantry remained but the Ogre was weaponless and reduced to moving only one hex per turn. The last three turns were real nail-biters: the Ogre crawled relentlessly toward the command post as the surrounding infantry (whose fire it was now helpless to return) slowly eroded its tread points. Finally, with but 2 tread points left (out of 45), the Ogre rolled over the command post and crushed it. This playtest was as close as a game can get, and took only thirty minutes to play, even with two hapless and inexperienced players. This game is really great, but just so I won't sound like a drooling Steve Jackson fan boy let me make...

THE TOKEN CRITICISMS

The miniatures come packaged in three plastic cases with foam inserts, which is a great idea and protects them nicely. I have, however, two minor complaints. First, the neat plastic cases are themselves packaged in a slipcover in the great Steve Jackson cost-cutting tradition of pocket boxes and ziplock bags. I think the slipcover is a bit cheesy and not worthy of the great contents of Deluxe Ogre, and I hope no one passes up this excellent package because of the somewhat chintzy exterior. I would knock off a half-point from Style, but these miniatures would be worth fifty bucks even if they came in a plain brown bag. My second complaint is that the assembled Ogre will not fit in the handy plastic cases provided. However, a General Foods International Coffee tin, lined with foam and painted flat black, makes a snug and handsome box for an Ogre Mark III. These minor and obligatory quibbles aside...

THE BOTTOM LINE

... is, if you're at all interested in science fiction wargaming or micro armor, you need Deluxe Ogre. Pick up a copy. You won't be sorry.

Deluxe Ogre Benjamin Ball
Item type: Miniatures Product Name: Deluxe Ogre Author: Steve Jackson Company/Publisher: Steve Jackson Games Line: Ogre SKU: Cost: 49.95 Page count: n/a ISBN: Ratings: Style 5 (Excellent!) Substance 5 (Excellent!) Review type: Playtest Review	I am a confirmed fan of Steve Jackson Games, by which I do not mean GURPS (the game mechanics seem lackluster to me, though the detailed sourcebooks are great for use with more interesting rules sets) but rather such (for want of a better term) "board games" as Car Wars, Hacker, Toon, and Illuminati. However, despite the fact that I've been buying SJG products for about twenty years, I for one reason or another never chanced to get a copy of Ogre. I did remember seeing a Grenadier Models Ogre Mark V when I was in junior high school (1983 or so) and being impressed by it. My primary gaming interest at this point in my life happens to be wargaming and miniatures. Thus, when I recently noticed that a new version of Ogre was being released featuring a formidable selection of items from the newly re-released Ogre miniatures line, I was quick to place an order. While enduring the interminable delays while the game was "at the printer," I purchased the new edition of Ogre/GEV (which uses old-fashioned cardboard counters) in order to learn the rules. So first let me say a little about... THE GAME The Ogre family of games is set in the late twenty-first century, in a rather grim, Orwellian world where a number of superpowers (all of which are essentially military dictatorships) are struggling for supremacy. A form of "synthetic diamond" armor has been developed, rendering armored vehicles and even battlesuited infantry immune to all attacks short of tactical nuclear weapons. Guess what these intrepid future warriors are tossing around like firecrackers. Added to this over-the-top scenario is what really gives this game its flavor, the giant cybernetic tank or Ogre. These babies are fifteen meters high, with armor that shrugs off the tac nukes and a deadly complement of atomic rail guns and "antipersonnel" (possibly flechette?) weapons. In its most basic form (there are innumerable elaborations), a game of Ogre involves an attack by a single Ogre cybertank on a vital enemy command post defended by a dozen or so vehicles and twenty squads of power-armored infantry. Since the armor protecting the Ogre's computer brain and power plant is essentially impervious to anything a local defense force can hope to muster, the only chance of stopping the giant tank is to blow the guns and treads (represented by abstract "tread points") off it before it reaches the command post. Not as easy as it sounds, I'm afraid, especially since the Ogre can basically swat the defenders like flies. Combat in Ogre is quick and deadly, using the kind of old-fashioned odds-ratio Combat Results Table that every veteran wargamer (such as myself) will greet with a nostalgic smile. Movement is simple and mostly unconcered with terrain (in the basic game). The game map, an ugly patch of blasted, cratered, and rubble-strewn ground where these intrepid future warriors have obviously been throwing some of the plentiful tac nukes, is a real kick. But the real stars of Deluxe Ogre are... THE MINIATURES These are simply great. I can't lavish enough praise on them. The game comes with an Ogre Mark III (one of the "little" ones) and some units for it to crush: an ominous-looking command post, eight tanks (4 with missiles and 4 with cannon), a hefty atomic howitzer, six GEVs (hovertanks), and twenty-one small infantry men in powered armor (each of which represents a whole squad in the game). Ten bases for the infantry are also provided. The miniatures are in 1/275 scale and thus slightly larger than the 1/300 or 6mm scale of many science fiction miniatures. The sculptors have taken advantage of this slight size increase to add a wealth of surface detail. The miniatures paint up beautifully with minimal skill and a small investment of time; it took me only two and a half weeks to paint them all while working and attending college. All the miniatures need is a base coat, some dry brushing, and a light wash to bring out the details. I prefer a rather heavy wash to make the vehicles took shadowy and dirty (there's an atomic war going on, after all!) but individual tastes will vary. In any case, these fine miniatures are well worth the price of Deluxe Ogre and compare favorably (both in terms of realism and value) to Battletech or Warhammer miniatures. Of course, once I had the neat little miniatures painted I had no choice but to proceed immediately to... THE PLAYTEST I recruited my brother, an old wargamer, for the festivities. He and I had both read the rules thoroughly, but neither of us had ever played Ogre before. We flipped a coin and he ended up as the defender. He chose the howitzer, four GEVs, and six tanks (half with missiles) to defend his command post along with twenty squads of infantry. He deployed the units with GEVs and missile tanks in the front and everything else at about the "fifty yard line" of the battlefield; the long-ranged howitzer was placed dead center, in a position to sweep the field from side to side. Naturally his command post was placed at the far end of the battlefield from my Ogre's entry point! I brought in the Ogre and began to harrass the defending forces, moving from side to side just out of howitzer range, forcing the defending units to constantly redeploy to block my expected lunge at the command post. The GEVs began making hit and run attacks on the Ogre (an attribute of their superior speed), chipping away at the treads and destroying one of the smaller guns. I continued to make sweeps across the battlefield, keeping the defending units off balance and picking off two of the lightly-armored missile tanks which strayed too close. Then I saw my opportunity: all of the manuevering had caused the defending GEVs to become clustered within easy reach. My Ogre lunged forward into howitzer range and unleashed a barrage which destroyed three of the GEVs. All of my brother's remaining armored units moved in to attack as I charged at the howitzer, followed on the next turn by swarms of infantry. It took the Ogre two turns to reach and crush the howitzer under its treads, and in that time it absorbed terrible punishment: its movement was down to two-thirds and all of its guns and most of its AP weapons had been destroyed. On the other hand, only a dozen or so infantry squads remained of the once-proud defense force, clustered around and blasting at the Ogre's treads. I headed straight for the defenseless command post, taking potshots at the harrassing infantry with my few remaining AP weapons. Within two turns, as the Ogre neared the command post, only half a dozen infantry remained but the Ogre was weaponless and reduced to moving only one hex per turn. The last three turns were real nail-biters: the Ogre crawled relentlessly toward the command post as the surrounding infantry (whose fire it was now helpless to return) slowly eroded its tread points. Finally, with but 2 tread points left (out of 45), the Ogre rolled over the command post and crushed it. This playtest was as close as a game can get, and took only thirty minutes to play, even with two hapless and inexperienced players. This game is really great, but just so I won't sound like a drooling Steve Jackson fan boy let me make... THE TOKEN CRITICISMS The miniatures come packaged in three plastic cases with foam inserts, which is a great idea and protects them nicely. I have, however, two minor complaints. First, the neat plastic cases are themselves packaged in a slipcover in the great Steve Jackson cost-cutting tradition of pocket boxes and ziplock bags. I think the slipcover is a bit cheesy and not worthy of the great contents of Deluxe Ogre, and I hope no one passes up this excellent package because of the somewhat chintzy exterior. I would knock off a half-point from Style, but these miniatures would be worth fifty bucks even if they came in a plain brown bag. My second complaint is that the assembled Ogre will not fit in the handy plastic cases provided. However, a General Foods International Coffee tin, lined with foam and painted flat black, makes a snug and handsome box for an Ogre Mark III. These minor and obligatory quibbles aside... THE BOTTOM LINE ... is, if you're at all interested in science fiction wargaming or micro armor, you need Deluxe Ogre. Pick up a copy. You won't be sorry.